I’m Hannah Roberts and I have been Girlguiding London and South East England’s assistant chief commissioner for inclusion and impact for 4 months. A key priority of our region’s strategy in 2024 is to support you to grow guiding in your local area, help you retain volunteers, and provide ideas of how to support young members transitioning to the next section.
We know this is always a big challenge, so over the coming year we want to give you some practical tips and advice to help you to tackle that recruitment and retention to-do list.
The good news is that a recent survey has shown that 50% of adults in the UK want to volunteer in 2024. An easy idea to build on this intention is to post on your local Girlguiding social media pages and in online community groups. Include a fun picture of local members (or use images from Girlguiding’s recruitment toolkit) to draw people in with a caption like: ‘Are you looking for a new challenge for the new year? Come and have a taster session to see how much fun guiding is as a volunteer!’ – adding in any extra information about where you meet, etc.
We already have aspects of support for you, including financial support to open new Guide and Ranger units from funding we received from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and a growing catalogue of resources on our website.
We want to build and expand on this support this year by:
- Sharing social media posts with little ideas, tips and tricks for growing guiding locally (be sure to follow us on X, Instagram and Facebook).
- Sharing stories of volunteers in different roles.
- Reporting on the success of new DCMS units.
- Looking to create a virtual unit for girls who may find it hard to access a unit in their local area.
- Building an inclusion network to help support all our members and potential members.
We’re also recruiting a lead volunteer for growth to join the inclusion and impact team to help champion this work. Have a look at the role description and, if growth is your thing, please apply no matter your level of experience in Girlguiding.
We have an exciting year ahead of us. Let’s keep sharing how fabulous we are with other people so that they can come and join in the fun!
All the best for 2024,
Hannah
Hannah Roberts
Assistant chief commissioner for inclusion and impact
Got any idea, need some help or have question? Drop the team an email at: growthandretention@girlguidinglaser.org.uk